Snow beats the Elderly – hands down

I’m from the south, so hearing the word snow brings joy to my heart and a smile to my face. I can count the number of times I’ve seen snow on one hand.

In1993 it snowed in Florida. I made the most pathetic snowman, mostly made of mud, and remember it like it was yesterday. It was so magical.

In 10th grade, my family vacationed in North Carolina and my father woke my sister and I up at 3 a.m. to see the falling snow piling high. By the morning, the snow had already completed falling but the memory was already stuck.

Then, because I never like to do the typical thing, my friend DeAnne and I spent our spring break in Vermont. It was freaking cold and snow covered everything. I mean everything. We even spent a day in Montreal, Canada where the snow fell from the sky in huge chunks. My feet were soaked, my hands were numb and I loved every minute of it.

So when the news came last week that snow was a major possability in the Florida Panhandle I was a glow. Then I realized where I work is an hour from where I live where the snow was set to form. There was a zero percent chance that the snow would be falling at the paper.

What a bummer … or so I thought.

Friday I’m working on briefs and preparing for my assignment, Valentines Day with the folks at the nursing home. Don’t get me wrong, I love the elderly dearly — I worked at a retirement center for six years and loved it — but the elderly just can’t compete with snow.

So I was on snow patrol. I traveled an hour and saw the first flakes fall at a school of less than 500 students kindergarten through 12th grade. I saw children wearing shorts and flip-flops playing in snow for the first time in their young lives. It was amazing, and quite similar to a zoo.